Sunday, July 31, 2016

I'm typing up this schedule on Sunday at about 11:40 pm. I've been wrestling with day job issues for the better (or worse, in some opinions) part of the afternoon and evening. I've got to be up and at work in another six hours. I am putting up an exercise schedule in the hopes that I will be able to achieve something exercise-wise. It could happen.
Yes, it is also possible that pigs will fly. They could be winging their way toward you e'en as I type. To quote Douglas Adams, "In an infinite universe... anything is possible."
exercise du jour:
The very light versionMorning: 15 minutes on the elliptical -FailNoon: 15 minutes ellipticalling also -FailEvening: 15 minutes ellipticalling - Done. 30 minutes ellipticalling to make up for the day. I am so short on sleep I kept closing my eyes while I exercised. But I still am counting this as done
Honestly, that's about all I can handle today. It's still movement. I will call it a win if I can achieve all this.

Friday, July 29, 2016

People who sat for more than eight hours and were active for less than five minutes had a 59% increased risk of death compared with a reference group of people who sat for less than four hours and were active for more than 60 minutes.

Yes, you've heard of studies about the dangers of sitting. It's still good to reinforce the lesson. I need the reinforcement, anyway. It's going to be hot today. I'm going to try to schedule exercise early in the day, when I can face the thought of working out. Later on, I'll be working up a sweat just by sitting.

Morning: 60 minutes elliptical - done! I didn't think I'd be able to fit that in, but I got lucky.
Noon: 30 minutes yard work - done. Well, more like 20 minutes but it's too hot. I took a break. That counts as done.
Afternoon: 30 minutes stretching and yogadone I did it! It meant working a 13 hour day, but I got exercise in today.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

It's going to be difficult to hold to any schedule today. Just sat down to work and already five different people have tried to schedule me to work on projects.
I'm going to pause for a moment. Take a deep breath, let it out, stretch.
Okay then. The schedule.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Apparently, in Victorian times, there was a disease known as Bicycle Face

Once the bicycling craze took possession of bicyclists, many wheelmen and wheelwomen supposedly began suffering from a disease known as “bicycle face.” Doctors soon gave warnings that women, girls, and middle-aged men should avoid excessive cycling.

Well then. I guess I'll have to stick to the elliptical for a while. Just to be safe.Exercise du jour:a.m.30 minutes ellipticalling done!noon30 minutes yard workdonep.m.60 minutes ellipticallingdone!

Friday, July 22, 2016

"In a startling discovery that raises fundamental questions about human behavior, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have determined that the immune system directly affects – and even controls – creatures’ social behavior, such as their desire to interact with others."
https://news.virginia.edu/content/shocking-new-role-found-immune-system-controlling-social-interactions
So if I'm not chatty, it's not my fault? I'll just blame my immune system.

10 a.m. -- Get up from my desk. 15 minutes ellipticalling
12 noon -- Get up from my desk. 30 minutes cleaning the house.30 minutes ellipticalling.
3:30 p.m. -- Get up from my desk. 30 minutes yard work.
4 p.m. -- 60 minutes ellipticalling.
7 p.m. -- 15 minutes ellipticalling.
I'm still having trouble with taking breaks, and walking away at the end of the work day. Working on it.
This was a day of mostly Fail. I did clean the house for 30 minutes, and I managed 45 minutes on the elliptical. But I spent the rest of the day trying to get work done. I know it's dumb, but when I'm tired I still try to push on through instead of taking a break or a nap or something. As if sitting in a chair like an ineffectual martyr ever solved anything. Luckily, I'm told tomorrow is another day.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

When I first set up my new elliptical, I was surprised to find that I could feel the arm muscles getting a work out using the moveable arms. It was actually an effort to pedal for a few minutes. Not a huge effort, true, but the mere fact that it was an effort at all shocked me. This was not a lot to ask of my body. I hadn't realized quite how out of shape I'd gotten.
I was also surprised, a day or so later, when I tried the elliptical again. This time, it was much less of an effort.
A few days after that, I ellipticalled for 30 minutes while watching a TV show. Didn't feel anything at all.
It is amazing how quickly a body can adapt to being in motion or being in chair.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Quote du jour: “We do not stop exercising because we grow old – we grow old because we stop exercising.” ~ Dr. Kenneth Cooper

Spent a total of 2 hours on the elliptical yesterday. I'm easing into this return to exercising, so I wasn't using high resistance. I got my heart rate up, even so. Have I mentioned that I love my elliptical? I even find using the moveable arms gives my arm muscles a bit of a workout.

Wow. I am surprised how tired I am today. I did not push myself yesterday as far as using resistance on the elliptical, and my muscles are not sore, but I have no energy today. Zero. Zip. Zilch. (Why are there so many 'Z' words for low energy?) So whatever I did, it must have pushed my body even though I did not feel like I was stressing out the system. I'm going to consider that progress.

Monday, July 18, 2016

Quote du jour: Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.- Carl Sandburg

One thing I'm working to overcome is my tendency to sit down in front of my computer and stay there for hours. Working in an office, it's easier to control this. A co-worker wants you to go to the break room for a coffee, you go out to lunch with people, you need to physically get up and go to a meeting. Something. But working from home, my point of connection to the outside world is the computer screen and there I stay.
So today, here's the schedule.

10 a.m. -- Get up from my desk. 15 minutes ellipticalling.-- done
12 noon -- Get up from my desk. 30 minutes cleaning the house. done30 minutes ellipticalling.done
3:30 p.m. -- Get up from my desk. 30 minutes yard work.fail. Last Minute Meeting, very important (yeah. so why was everything shelved until tomorrow if it was so important, hmmn?)
4 p.m. -- 60 minutes ellipticalling.done -- got to use up a lot of frustration
7 p.m. -- 15 minutes ellipticalling.done. Finally.
That's a hard schedule for me. Not the hour on the elliptical, the taking-a-break part.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Quote du jour: Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
- Steve Jobs

Sheesh, all it took was a job with a hellishly long commute and poof my exercise blogging went out the window.
Update:

No, I'm not dead. Not yet, at least.

Working a job that involves a 3-hour commute and getting up at 4:30 in the morning is bad for your blogging schedule.

Jumping from that job to one that involves travel up to half a month is even worse.

Exercising or eating right when working 15 hour days is not always easy possible.

For the moment, I'm not working as hard so I'm going to go back to tracking exercise.

I bought a new elliptical. Broke the old cheap one, and fixing it would've cost more than it was worth, so I bought a fancy one with a fancy maintenance agreement. I've found that this is one type of exercise that I can and will do consistently. Go with what works, yes?
Exercise du jour: 1 hour, ellipticalling -- done!

About Me

I'm a vertically challenged and horizontally enhanced woman, living in the Pacific Northwest and devoting my considerable stubbornness toward becoming fit. I created this blog to help me get exercise. I find being publicly accountable really helps. And guilt works too.

My plan

Exercise, try, or post the reason why.

Each week, I set up my exercise schedule.Each day, I aim to complete the exercise posted for that day.If I'm good, I get a gold star next to the exercise. Yes, I work out for bright sparkly virtual objects :)